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“Dan’s Boogie” by Destroyer: A Review
Canadian indie band Destroyer was formed in 1995, but I first encountered them listening to Anthony Fantano’s review of 2015’s Poison Season. I put on what he called the standout track, “Bangkok” and found myself hooked instantly by the weird-voiced man — Destroyer’s sole consistent member and singer/guitarist/songwriter/lyricist, Dan Bejar — intoning cryptic poetry over a slow orchestral bed.
Poison Season fused indie rock with a sort of bizarro trad-pop. Destroyer’s approach seemed like no other. On each album, a different subgenre is skewered, twisted, and reconfigured into gems of songs. On Streethawk: A Seduction (2001), he does glam similar to Marc Bolan and Bowie. On Destoyer’s Rubies (2006), it’s folk-rock, while on Your Blues (2004), every single instrument is MIDI. What keeps it from fading into a gimmick is Bejar himself. He fully commits his voice to every genre he’s occupying. His lyrical prowess is unrivaled, firing off lyrics that reference rock history faster than Tarantino references Westerns.
On 2011’s Kaputt, Dan found his masterpiece in exploring 80s synth-pop a la Pet Shop Boys, New Order, and Tears for Fears. In an age where ‘80s nostalgia is all around us, Kaputt stands out with catchy choruses, reverbed trumpet, and sad reflections on the promises of the decade. All of the tropes are there, but they’re in weird, unsettling places. The title track sounds like someone dancing while hungover, with Dan singing like a party guy trying to convince himself he’s not miserable.
The album isn’t afraid to say the quiet part out loud; as Dan’s narrator does cocaine, he tells a lover her “first love is New Order,” and throws up in an English garden. Highs, comedowns, and the over-saturation of pop hits were on the minds of artists in the 80s, but they rarely talked about it within the music. Graft this concept onto catchy tunes, and you get a contemporary music masterpiece.
2015’s Poison Season continued the trend of exploration, with Dan playing at being Jacques Brel, but Ken, for the first time in Destroyer’s career, took a step backward, covering… hmm…80s synth pop. This would be forgivable if the album were exceptional, but it sounds like a pale imitation of Kaputt. Even the album’s highest moments, like “Tinseltown Swimming in Blood”, fades in comparison to similar tracks on Kaputt. Have We Met? takes the trend even further, with even less memorable songs. It’s more of the same on 2022’s Labrinthitis, falling into aimless art reference and cheesy synths.
By the time we get to this year’s Dan’s Boogie, we’ve hit the point of no return.
Dan’s Boogie sees Bejar working out the principle of diminishing returns. It’s not a bad album, but it marks the 10-year slide of one of my favorite artists from a cutting-edge rocker to a bored old poet.
And I get it. It’s hard for indie rockers. Before this smoothing out of his style, his music used to dip and slide in popularity and acclaim. Now he sees consistent interviews, consistent tours, consistent reviews, and consistent money. This is surely a comfort to the aging tunesmith who no doubt wants to feed his family. For a younger man with less to lose, or an older man making more mainstream music/cash, taking risks would be easier. I respect it. And I have sympathy. But if rock criticism was about sympathy and respect, it would have died when Lester Bangs did.
-Christian Flynn
Photo: Dan Bejar, 2011 (Bill Ebbesen via Wikimedia Commons)
I am a huge, pre-Ken Destroyer fan. Kaputt is one of my all-time favorite Indie albums. Unfortunately, we have not seen the same creative genius of Poison Season, Kaputt, Streethawk: A Seduction, etc. over the 10-year slide. Whatever the reason, a Lester Bangs style of critique is fitting. Let’s send Dan this C.S. article to inspire him to rediscover the creative genius we miss so dearly.
https://www.culturesonar.com/not-going-gently-artists-innovating-after-60/
Lester Bangs would have HATED Destroyer AND every New Pornographers song featuring Dan Bejar’s pompous sing-with-your-eyes-shut-because-it-means-so-much bullcrap.
I agree that he’d had the new stuff — but the stuff on Rubies? Streethawk? Lester after all did love “Astral Weeks”, which I love, but come on, is one of the most pretentious records out there.
Thank you for calling out Destroyer’s sell-out, return to the same old since 2017. Whenever an artist prioritizes commercial success over innovation, we end up with albums like Ken, Labrinthitis, and Dan’s Boogie. This is disheartening for all of us who love his earlier work. Your passionate disappointment and critique of Destroyer’s musical inovation decline reminds me of my favorite Lester Bangs quote in Almost Famous: “Music, you know, true music – not just rock and roll – it chooses you.”